


All Over but the Shouting

by Imcalledzorro



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mission Gone Wrong, Worried Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), worried Riley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22798183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imcalledzorro/pseuds/Imcalledzorro
Summary: “Jack, sit-rep now!” Matty demanded.  But Jack was too numb to obey his boss.  He kept his gun trained on the door as he leaned down to check the body, praying the whole time.
Comments: 61
Kudos: 91





	1. Jack

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been excited about this fic for a while now. I like to write one thing at a time so I had to finish up on the story I was currently working on before I could start this. When I finally got to it, I finished the rough draft in a week, yeah, I usually don't write that fast, I'm like super excited to share it with ya'll! A huge shout out to Axxonly for the Beta, I appreciate your hard work very much! As always I don't own MacGyver (cause if I did, well there would be some changes, lol)

Jack Dalton passed the binoculars he was using back to his partner Angus MacGyver, so that Mac could also get a good look at the compound they were going to be breaking into. Jack, Mac, and Riley Davis were hiding in the woods overlooking a non-descript compound. But calling it a compound was a gross exaggeration of the word. It was one large building with a fence all around it, and only one exit and entrance. Jack had spotted three guards, one that stood sentry in front of the building and two more that patrolled the fence line. “Are you sure that the stolen goods are in there?” He asked not bothering to look at Riley.

She answered, “Yes Jack, I tracked the signal that Matty sent me back to this building … you know, the only building in the area. I’m sure that the stolen DARPA laptop is in there.” She sounded huffy to his trained ears, but he decided it was better not to say anything since they were in the middle of an op.

The three of them and their fourth partner Wilt Bozer had been on their way back from another mission when they were reassigned mid-air by their boss at the Phoenix Foundation, Matty Webber. Matty had explained that a group somehow had got a hold of an old DARPA laptop that still had top secret information stored on it, and they were the closest assets to where the laptop was sending a signal from. So they had been rerouted, and the three of them were squatting in the woods spying on the compound, while Bozer waited a short distance away with a vehicle for a quick exit. Due to Mac having to repurpose three of their comms to make his doohickey work on their previous mission Bozer didn’t have comms for this mission, so Matty had to relay any pertinent information to his phone.

“So what’s the plan Jack?” Riley asked. “Storm the gates? Crash the van through the front gates A-Team style? Maybe we can tunnel under the compound and pop up right where the laptop is.”

Jack turned to look at Riley with a frown on his face, “As great as those ideas are Sweetheart, I do believe boy genius over here has something else in mind. Mac?” Mac was still looking through the binoculars, but he had his thinking face on, as Jack liked to call it. “Care to share with the class?”

Mac pulled the binoculars down, “If we cut through the fence at the back of the building, it will give us cover from the guards. Then we can take the first guard out as he gets close. Then Jack can take the guard at the door, and pose as him while Riley and I make entrance to the building. We can take down anybody we might stumble onto in the building, and retrieve the stolen laptop, without disturbing the other guard. If we get lucky he might not even notice until we are long gone.”

After snorting Jack asked, “Hoss do we ever have good luck?” then he nodded, it was a good plan but there was one major flaw. “Well that sounds good and all, but we don’t know how many people are in that building.”

“There are three vehicles parked in the small parking lot, so theoretically each guard could have driven their own car here.” Mac offered as he surveyed the area again with the binoculars.

“Or each vehicle could have come filled to capacity, so there are twelve people waiting for us in that building, which we can’t see into.” Riley countered.

Mac sighed, “I want to build a thermal imaging device, but I’m lacking several important components.”

Jack thought for a minute, “Hey Riles, how quickly can their people hack into that laptop?”

Riley shook her head, “It could be minutes or it could be weeks, It really just depends on the encryption, which I suspect is top notch, and who they got to hack it. Without knowing those two things it’s impossible to say.”

Jack had been afraid of that answer, “Webber?”

“Yes, Dalton.” Came the reply over their comms.

“What do you want us to do Boss Lady? Should we go ahead against an unknown amount of unfriendlies or wait and gather more information.”

They heard a sigh, “I was afraid that you were going to ask that. I contacted DARPA, and from what they told me it would be in our best interest to get that laptop back as soon as possible.”

“Understood.” Jack said. Then he turned to his friends. “Riley do you have a weapon? I don’t want to send you in there without some sort of protection.” Nodding she reached into her backpack and pulled out a small pistol. “Good, now we are going to follow Mac’s plan. Once you’re inside the building stay sharp, and call if you need me. I hate sending y’all in against an unknown force.” Jack still had reservations about sending them into that building without knowing what was in there, but that was part of their job, and Mac was the best person to send when you didn’t know what was going to happen. _‘Hopefully there are just a couple of computer nerds, that Riley can charm into some felx-cuffs._ ’ Jack thought.

They waited for one of the perimeter guard to pass then quickly and quietly made their way down the slope to the fence. Mac started hunting around on the ground. “Hey Slick, what ‘cha doin down there?” Jack asked. Mac looked up, “I’m looking for something to give my knife more leverage to get through the fence.”

“Might I suggest using these?” Riley passed him a pair of wire cutters from her backpack. Answering the unspoken question Riley shrugged and said, “Thought they might come in handy.”

Mac quickly made a hole in the fence big enough for them to wiggle through, but not big enough to be obvious. The three of them crossed the space between the building and the fence and flattened themselves against the back of the building so the guard wouldn’t see them until too late for him. They heard the guard coming before they saw him, and pressed tighter against the building. After he passed the group Jack snuck up on him and grabbed him in a choke hold. ‘ _Don’t fight it, just relax, it’ll be over quicker.’_ Jack thought. The guy in Jack’s arm must have been listening, because he quickly passed out. Jack made short work of dragging him back to Mac and Riley. Mac slapped some duct tape over the guy’s mouth, and Riley zip tied his arms and legs. Then the three of them stowed him under a bush. Jack knew they only had a set amount of time before the second guard made his round.

“I’m going to repeat what I did here, with the guard in front, then y’all can make your entrance.” Jack quietly reminded them of the plan. After nods of confirmation from both Mac and Riley the three of them eased up the side of the building and Jack repeated the process just as he had before, this time though, he borrowed the guard’s jacket, cap, and rifle. After depositing the second guard next to the first one Jack dawned his new clothing, the items were a bit big, but if anybody was close enough to tell then they were trouble, and took his post. Mac squatted down behind Jack a few turns of his wrist and the flimsy lock was unlocked. Jack was relieved to see that Riley had her gun out and at the ready. After Mac finished with the lock he and Riley slipped in, and Jack was left to stand guard, which didn’t usually disturb him as much as it did right now. He couldn’t figure it out, but something wasn’t sitting right. Mac and Riley had only been inside for a few minutes when Jack noticed that the other guard was approaching, and then his spidey - or as Bozer liked to call it - Mac senses, went off.

At first Jack wasn’t sure what set it off, but then he realized that the sound of Mac’s breathing had sped up. Then he heard the faint shouts of surprise as the unfriendlies discovered Mac and Riley inside. Jack wanted desperately to dash inside to protect them, but he had to take care of the last guard first. So Jack stayed put playing the sentry, despite all of his overprotective instincts yelling at him to burst in and make sure that Mac and Riley were ok.

The perimeter guard drew ever so closer.

“Mac, Riley, can one of you give me a sit-rep?” It was Matty’s voice over their comms. She sounded concerned, but not overly so.

The perimeter guard was still a distance out, but he had a clean line of sight to the front of the building. After staring at Jack he slowly came to a stop. When the guard picked up a radio from his belt Jack realized that the ruse was up. Hearing two shots, Jack pulled his gun and shot the guard before the guard could fully bring his rifle up. It was only then that Jack realized the shot he heard came from inside the building, not outside. All he could hear from his comm right then was ragged breathing and whimpers. Enraged at what might be happening to his kids Jack took the door with a well placed and powerful kick. The doors exploded inside thudding against their hinges. Jack was able to see at least one unfriendly using Riley as a human shield dragging her into a room down a short hallway and the door slamming shut behind them. But what stopped Jack’s heart was Mac lying on his stomach in a spreading pool of blood.

Jack was not even conscious of his muttering, “Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok, please be ok.”

“Jack, sit-rep now!” Matty demanded, breaking through the haze.

But Jack was too numb to obey his boss, with his gun still pointed at the door that Riley had been dragged through. He knelt and shakily placed his fingers on Mac’s neck praying that he could find a pulse. While keeping an eye on the door he tried to see where all the blood had come from, and if Mac’s chest was rising, but the jacket that Mac wore wasn’t moving. Jack looked closer and realized that the other side of Mac’s neck was awash with blood, looking down Jack could see another area on Mac’s lower flank where it looked like he had been shot. Not feeling anything under his fingers, Jack was about to push harder, praying that he could find some proof of life in Mac’s still body, on high alert Jack noticed when the door started to open ever so slowly and when a rifle barrel poked out of the room.

“Sit-rep now!” Demanded Matty, all pretenses of patience gone.

Jack left Mac’s body shoving the grief deep down in a box and locking it tight. He took shelter behind the wall that led to the hallway. “Mac is down Matty. I don’t know how bad it is, and they’ve got Riley.” Jack was surprised at how steady his voice was, but he knew it was from years of having to store his emotions until after the conflict was over, and he couldn’t bear to tell Matty that he was pretty sure that Mac was…well he couldn’t even admit it to himself.

“Stop!” Came over the comms. It was Riley’s voice.

“I’m coming, sweetheart.” Jack said hoping that it would give Riley the reassurance that she needed.

“Go get our girl.” Matty demanded.

Jack brought up his acquired rifle, and after inspecting it to make sure it had enough rounds, he took off down the hallway at a run letting his frustration, anger, and fear fuel him. He again kicked the door sending it violently crashing into the man standing behind it. The blow sent the man to the floor. Jack them double tapped the two other guards that were hiding off to the left with their guns pointed at him, and kicked the door guy in the head making sure he stayed unconscious. That left only him, Riley, the thug who was holding Riley hostage, and two nerdy looking scientists cowering under a computer table.

Jack pointed his rifle straight at the thug who was holding Riley like a shield in front of him. He had a hold of her hair in his left hand, and with his right he held a knife at Riley’s throat. She looked a little rumpled with blood trickling from a split lip, and the beginnings of a bruise on her cheekbone.

“It would be in your best interest if you laid that toothpick down and let her go.” Jack told the thug, his voice icy and mean.

“And let you shoot me? Not going to happen.” The thug begun to smile, and pressed the knife harder against Riley’s throat.

Jack noticed that Riley kept on looking down, so he followed her eyes, and noticed that she was using her tied hands to signal him her plan. With a nod he confirmed he understood. Then on a three count Riley dropped suddenly, leaving the thug without cover, so Jack shot him without any hesitation.

Riley sprang up pulling her wrists free of her bonds and took off down the hall to where Mac was laying. Jack couldn’t face Mac’s limp body yet, so he walked over to where the nerds were still cowering under the table. “If you come out I might not shoot you.” He growled.

The two came scrambling out with their hands over their head. With a sigh he quickly secured them with zipties, being none too careful. He could hear Riley speaking, but was trying to give her time with her grief when she screamed, “Jack!”

He went running, and what he saw made his heart stop.


	2. Riley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about that cliffhanger! Can't say I won't do it again, lol! This is very similar to the first chapter, but from Riley's POV. I want to dedicated this chapter to those writers who have inspired me to be a better writer, thanks! A huge shout out to Axxonly for the Beta, I appreciate your hard work very much! As always I don't own MacGyver

Riley was not a happy camper, she stood just behind Mac and Jack as they looked down at the building where the stolen laptop’s signal was coming from. The team had been flying back from a mission when Matty had given them this assignment. The boys had taken it easily enough, but for some reason Riley couldn’t shake her bad mood. She knew this assignment was important and the reason they had been assigned it, but all she wanted to do was crawl in her own bed and take a nap. But here she was standing on a hill making sure that the laptop’s signal didn’t change or move. She glanced at her own laptop to check the readings.

“Are you sure the stolen goods are in there?” Jack asked

Riley resisted the urge to sigh or slap Jack on the back of the head. “Yes Jack, I tracked the signal that Matty sent me back to this building, you know the only building in the area. The stolen DARPA laptop is in there.” Jack seemed to take her flippant tone in stride. He may be a giant jokester, but he knew when to get serious, sometimes.

Both Mac and Jack’s attention was on the building, but Riley was getting impatient to get going, “So what’s the plan Jack? Storm the gates? Crash the van through the front gates A-Team style? Maybe we can tunnel under the compound and pop up right where the laptop is.”

That got a reaction out of Jack, he gave her a confused look, “As great as those ideas are Sweetheart, I do believe boy genius over here has something else in mind. Mac?”

Riley felt a little bad she knew they had had years more training than her, first in the military, then with the DXS, she needed to get her head in the game, so to speak. Making the decision to try to adjust her attitude she turned to Mac.

“Care to share with the class.” Jack asked when Mac didn’t immediately take over for Jack.

Mac pointed at a spot in the fence line, “if we cut through the fence at the back of the building, it will give us cover from the guards. Then we can take the first guard out as he gets close. Then Jack can take the guard at the door, and pose as him while Riley and I make our entrance into the building. We can take down anybody we might stumble onto, and retrieve the stolen laptop. Without disturbing the other guard until we are long gone.”

Riley ran it over in her head it sounded good to her, but…. Jack voiced it before Riley figured it out, “Well that sounds good and all, but we don’t know how many people are in that building.” Riley nodded, that would be a major flaw. She and Mac could easily take a couple of guys, but more than three….

“There are three vehicles parked in the small parking lot, so theoretically each guard could have driven their own car here.” To Riley’s ears it sounded like Mac was reaching.

“Or each vehicle could have come filled to capacity, so there are twelve people waiting on us in that building, which we can’t see into.” Riley couldn’t get past the thought of what if there were more than three inside guards.

Mac shook his head, “I want to build a thermal imaging device, but I’m lacking several important components.”

Everybody was silent for a moment thinking it over, “Hey Riles, how quickly can their people hack into that laptop?”

Sometimes it really annoyed her how Jack just couldn’t seem to grasp computer stuff. Shaking her head she explained it to him, “it could be minutes or it could be weeks, it depends on the encryptions, which I suspect are top notch, and who they got to hack it. Without knowing those two things it’s impossible to say.”

Jack nodded like he had been expecting that answer, “Webber?”

Matty’s answer came swiftly, “Yes, Dalton.”

“What do you want us to do Boss Lady? Should we go ahead against an unknown amount of unfriendliness or wait and gather more information.” Jack frowned listening intently to what Matty had to say.

A sigh came from Matty. “I was afraid that you were going to ask that. I contacted DARPA, and from what they told me it would be in our best interest to get that laptop back as soon as possible.” Riley had figured Matty would say that, their team had the worst luck when it came to timetables.

“Understood.” Jack said, then he turned to Riley. “Do you have a weapon? I don’t want to send you in there without some sort of protection.” She hated having to carry a weapon sometimes, carrying a laptop was second nature, but a gun wasn’t yet. But she nodded, reached into her backpack to pull a small pistol. Jack nodded in satisfaction. “Good, now we are going to follow Mac’s plan. Once you’re inside the building stay sharp, and call if you need me. I hate sending ya’ll in against an unknown force.” Yeah, Riley hated that part too.

Riley checked the laptop again, before stowing it in her backpack, they quietly made their way to the fence when she noticed Mac started hunting around on the ground. But Jack again asked her question before she could. “Hey Slick, what ‘cha doin down there?” Mac looked up, “I’m, looking for something to give my knife more leverage to get through the fence.”

Riley laughed internally and dug out the wire cutters that she had brought along just in case. “Might I suggest using these?” She passed Mac the cutters. When she noticed the look that Jack was giving her she shrugged and answered “Thought they might come in handy.” And it gave her a huge amount of satisfaction to have been proven right.

Mac made quick use of the cutters, and handed them back to her. Once she placed them back into her backpack she withdrew the gun again, determined to be able to protect herself and Mac if needed be. Jack signaled them to hide against the building as they heard the guard approaching. Jack stealthily attacked, and the guard was quickly knocked out. She and Mac made quick work of restraining and stuffing him under a bush. Jack motioned for her and Mac to get closer.

“I’m going to repeat what I did here, with the guard in front, then y’all can make your entrance.” Jack said quietly. Riley still trying to stay in a better mood, and didn’t roll her eyes, she knew that Jack was just trying to protect them the best way he knew how. So she just nodded, and followed Mac. After Jack took the other guard out as easily as they first, they zip tied him and drag him back to join his friend. Getting back to the front door Mac made quick work of the lock and the two of them slipped into the building. As soon as they cleared the door she quietly shut it. The lobby was empty of everything except for a few empty boxes. Directly across from the entrance was a hallway that probably led to where they were keeping the laptop.

Mac leaned close and whispered, “Can you tell if the laptop is out here or if it’s in the other room?”

Riley shook her head, “I’ll have to check.” She had slid her backpack around, slid the gun back into it and was pulling the laptop out when things started to go downhill.

“Mac, Riley, can one of you give me a sit-rep?” Matty asked, but Riley ignored her boss’s request at the sight of three guys with guns coming down the earlier empty hallway. ‘ _Shit’_ she thought, as both her and Mac tried find cover.

“Freeze!” Once of the guys ordered.

Neither Mac nor Riley froze and two shots rang out, both hitting Mac. Riley turned, rooted to the spot, unable to do anything but watch her friend fall. He spun half around falling with a thud onto his face on the floor, red blood already starting to slowly seep out beneath him. Riley froze in terror and fear. One of the guards grabbed her arm, using her anger and worry she spun around to deck him, but another guard was there and punched her in the face first, stunning her.

“Take her to the back. I’ll check the one you shot.” Riley heard through her daze as she was roughly drug backwards.

The front doors of the building burst open with a mighty thud and Jack stormed in. But Riley didn’t even have time to cry out, before the two guards reached the door to the back room. They shoved her into the room with two other waiting guards, and two technicians cowering on the floor, while one of the guards shut the door.

Another of the guards loosely tied Riley’s hands in front of her before turning to the one that held her. “I told you that somebody would come for that damned laptop!”

“Well it’s a good thing that we didn’t take it back to headquarters then, isn’t it!” The second guard shot back.

Riley opened her mouth to tell them that they should just go ahead and let her go, but guard one punched her in the mouth splitting her lip. “Nobody asked you honey. Now be a good hostage and wait silently.”

In Riley’s ear she heard Matty demand a sit-rep, _‘Oh god Mac! If these maniacs killed him’”_ Riley brought her thoughts back from that dark place. Two of the guards were fighting about what to do next.

“It’s just one more. We shoot him just like that first guy, have fun with Sweet thing over there. No biggy.” Guard one leered at Riley.

Guard two shook his head, “The way he took down that door says special ops. No, we keep this one.” He shook Riley for emphasis. “With us, use her as a hostage, and then after those two nerds find what we need, we shoot them both.” They looked at the other two guards in the room, who both shrugged.

Guard one sighed, “More brawn than brains. Fine, we slip through the door, shoot your special ops guy….”

“Fine, we’ll do it your way!” Guard two gave in. “But I’ll stay here with her. Hey dumb and dumber get over here and back him up.”

The other two guards moved up beside the first one and guard one slowly inched the door open.

“Sit-rep, now!” Matty demanded

The first guard was at the door using it as cover to try and ease out without being seen by Jack.

“Mac is down Matty. I don’t know how bad it is, and they’ve got Riley.” Riley was so glad to hear Jack’s voice, she just needed him to say that Mac was ok.

The guard that at the door started to swing it open a tiny bit more. Riley had to let Jack know, “Stop!” She yelled.

Jack instantly replied, “I’m coming, sweetheart.”

Any other reply was lost. The door crashed inwards smacking off of guard one’s head, knocking him to the floor, as dazed as she had been. Jack came storming through, guns blazing taking out both the other guards, and kicked first guard in the head knocking him out.

The second guard was still standing behind her, only in the melee he had gotten his knife out and was holding it against her throat, Riley held really still, but her brain was whirling with ideas ‘ _Huh I wonder if this is how Mac feels’_ then she brought herself back to the present, it was no time for her thoughts to be wondering, Mac’s survival might be depending on her and how quickly they got out of this situation.

Jack held his gun steady on the second guard, “It would be in your best interest if you would lay that toothpick down and let her go.” Jack said his voice low and menacing.

His tone of voice sent shivers down her spine.

“And let you shoot me?” the guard scoffed. “Not going to happen.” The knife tightened against her throat. Riley had an idea, but she needed Jack to focus on her so she could tell him her plan. She looked at him then her hands, at Jack then back at her hands. Jack saw her and looked down at her hands. She held up three fingers, and pointed to the ground, then did it again. That time Jack gave a slight nod of understanding. So she started the countdown. On three she dropped, her whole body going slack.

Startled the guard dropped her, giving Jack the opportunity to take him off the board. Riley jumped to her feet, quickly untying her hands, and sprinted for where she had last seen Mac. He was on his stomach facing away from her, and Riley couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not by his jacket. The slow seep of blood had become a puddle. She swiftly flipped him over on his back so she could better see what had happened. It was then that she saw that he had been shot in the neck and took another round to below his ribs. The neck injury was a deep furrow across the outside of his neck that steadily oozed blood enlarging the pool beneath him. His skin was noticeably paler. Riley placed her fingers on his jugular _‘please don’t let him be dead, please don’t let me be dead_ ’ She chanted as she felt for that all important pulse of life. She couldn’t feel anything. Realizing that Jack wasn’t there she screamed in desperation:

“Jack!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, please don't hurt me! I promise no more cliffhangers for this story!


	3. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have had this up earlier, but my finger had a slight mishap when I was assembling a clothing rack thus making typing difficult, thankfully it's mostly better! So there might be some medical stuff later in the chapter, if you are a medical person and I've gotten something wrong please let me know! I wanted to get a medical beta, but never got a response, so let's cross our fingers and hope that I got everything right, lol! There is one more chapter after this. A huge thanks to Axxonly for the wonderful Beta work, and as always I don't own MacGyver.

In desperation Riley tried one more time to find Mac’s pulse before initiating CPR. She pressed harder and finally felt it! Feeling the faint pulse beneath her fingers was the best feeling ever, but just because he had a pulse now didn’t mean that Mac still couldn’t die. So she dug into his pocket pulled out his knife, and sliced off the arm of her shirt folding it into a bandage. The thud of Jack’s boots reached her as he slid down beside her.

“He’s alive?” The hope in Jack’s voice broke her heart, and caused a fresh wave of tears to run down her face. She could only nod, not trusting her voice.

“Matty we need help, NOW.” The last part was growled.

“I’m relaying the information to Bozer and will have ex-fil plans to you in a minute. You keep Blondie alive.” Matty commanded.

Riley pressed her makeshift dressing to Mac’s throat her worry increasing when he didn’t respond in any way, and looked around for something to secure it with. Jack pulled a mostly used roll of duct tape out of Mac’s pants and securely tapped the dressing down.

“Bozer’s on his way to pick you up. There is a military medical facility not far from your location; it will be quicker to take him there. I’ll have them on standby. Webber out.”

After securing the wound at Mac’s neck, Riley cut off the other sleeve, and they used that as a bandage for the wound on Mac’s side. While it was also sluggishly bleeding there wasn’t as big a puddle as the neck wound.

Riley sniffed and tried to wipe the tears off her cheek. Jack looked at her grabbing her arm. “It’ll be ok Ri. Mac’s as strong as they come.” Riley drank in Jack’s confidence, and nodded, still not trusting her voice. They heard the revving of a motor. “Ok, when we move him out to the van I’m gonna grab his chest, and I need you to grab his legs. Try to keep his legs elevated higher than his chest. Understand?” Riley grabbed the backpack that she had left on the floor and swung it on her back, moving down to Mac’s feet. “On the count of three. One. Two. Three. Lift.”

Riley lifted Mac’s feet careful to keep them higher than his head. When Jack lifted Mac’s torso, Mac let out a moan.

Bozer came running in, “Shit man, that’s a lot of blood.”

“Yeah, let’s move.” Jack grunted as they quickly but smoothly walked out the door. Jack slid Mac into the back, then jogged to the driver’s side door where Bozer had climbed in. “Get in back with Mac. I’m driving.”

Bozer didn’t hesitate; he climbed though to the back where Riley was closing the doors. “How’s he doing?” he quietly asked Riley.

She shook her head, more tears silently slipping down her cheeks. “At first I didn’t think he was alive Bozer.” With a sniff and another swipe of her hand she said. “Jack said to make sure his legs were elevated.”

Bozer nodded, “To help keep shock away.” Jack gunned the engine and soon they were bumping away. Riley could hear Matty giving Jack directions, but tuned it out to concentrate on Mac. “Now we need to keep him as warm as possible.” Bozer struggled out of his jacket and laid it over his friend’s prone body.

Riley grabbed Mac’s normally strong and lithe hands, to let him know she was with him, when she noticed that the tips of his fingers were turning blue. Before she had a chance to say anything they hit another aggressive hole, Mac moaned as his body bounced.

“Can you not do that!” Riley hollered at Jack.

“Do you want Mac to die?” He yelled back. “’Cause I don’t, so hold on.”

Riley grabbed another coat that was lying in the back and stuffed under Mac’s head softening the bumping a little bit for her injured friend. The ride seemed to take forever and just a second all at the same time before Jack pulled to a screeching halt at the hospital’s emergency entrance. As Matty had promised there was a swarm of people waiting for them. The team of medical professionals flung open the back doors and efficiently transferred Mac to a waiting gurney. Jack had jumped out of the van to follow Mac and Riley brought up the rear not knowing what else to do.

“He was shot twice. Once though the neck the other through his lower right flank. There was a massive pool of blood when we moved him, and….” Jack trailed off. “He’s AB negative,”

The nurse closest to Jack turned around, “Are you sure about that?”

Jack didn’t shrink back from her penetrating stare, “Yes, we’ve served together. He’s AB negative, and I’m O negative. I can give if I need to.”

A look of understanding came over her eyes. “We’ll take good care of Agent MacGyver. What don’t you both find a waiting room? We’ll come get you when we have news.”

Jack stubbornly shook his head. “I’m going where he goes until surgery.” It was not a question, it was a demand.

The nurse must have recognized a losing battle when she saw one. With a sigh, “Stay back we need room to work.” She hurried into the room that Mac had been wheeled into.

There was a hive of activity around his hospital bed, with multiple people talking at the same time. “He’s AB negative, Cindy run down to the blood bank and see if we have that in stock. Grab all that you can. He’s going to need it.”

“BP is in the toilet.”

“Line going in.”

Suddenly the heart monitor came to life and even to Riley’s untrained ears she knew it was way too fast. “Shit, he’s tachycardic. We need to find that bleeder!”

“Line’s running wide open. Where are we on the blood?”

“I’ll check.” A nurse broke off to use the phone.

“Check the neck for the bleeder.”

“Shit, fuck, yeah, it’s the neck. Get me a….”

“He’s coding!”

Riley had a death grip on Jack’s hand, and clutched his arm to her chest, tears flowing down her cheek, watching the medical team work on one of the people she had come to think of as family. She tried not to sob out loud when she realized that Mac’s heart had stopped.

“Shocking!” Everybody but one nurse stepped away. Mac’s body twitched, and the wail of the cardiac monitor continued.

“Hit him again.”

“Shocking!”

This time the cardiac monitor started beeping again, but thankfully not as fast. “Fix that bleeder now! After that we’ve got him a room booked for surgery.”

The nurse that had gone for the blood came running back in. “I grabbed the only four units they had then grabbed three more of O neg.” She said as she handed a couple of blood bags off to another nurse who quickly got it going.

“I’ve just about…”

“He’s coding again!”

“Shit!”

The shrill wail of the cardiac monitor struck horror in Riley’s heart, as she clung to her lifeline, Jack was clinging to her also.

“Shit, we’ve got to get this blood in faster!”

“Shocking.”

Then came the calmer cadence of a normal heart rhythm.

“Get that neck stitched!”

“And…it..is… done!”

At that the team threw all essential items onto Mac’s bed, and they raced out of the room off to surgery. The same nurse as before walked over to them. “You ready for that waiting room now?” She asked gently.

She gave them directions on how to get to the surgery waiting room, but stopped Riley from heading after Jack. “Sweetie do you want to come with me and get cleaned up a little?”

Her confusion must have shown. “You kinda got blood all over ya kid.” Jack explained. “Go with the nice nurse, get cleaned up. I’ll find Bozer and then we’ll all wait together, ok?”

Riley nodded and the two parted ways. She didn’t realize just how bloody she was until the nurse led her into a large bathroom and gave her a pair of scrubs to change into. When she looked into the mirror she saw streaks of Mac’s blood on her face where she had wiped away her tears. His blood was on her shirt, on her hands, and on her jeans. Biting back the urge to break down sobbing she instead changed her clothes, washed her face and hands and put on a brave face, a brave face that trembled and was very scared for her friend. She would have plenty of time to break down later.

The nice nurse had also taken the time to grab all three of them coffees and escorted her to where Jack and Bozer were sitting. The nurse set the drinks down, and quietly slipped back out. Jack stood up and wrapped her in a giant hug, which went a long way to putting everything right in their world. They waited, and waited. Jack walked off to update Matty a couple of time, but was always back quickly. Finally a doctor came in to talk to them.

“Hello Agents, I’m Dr. Spencer, I was lead surgeon for Agent MacGyver’s….” He was cut off by Bozer.

“Mac.” Bozer stated. “Just call him Mac.”

Dr. Spencer nodded and continued. “Mac was shot twice as you know. The neck injury was the most pressing, as it nicked his carotid artery, causing major blood loss. We lost him a couple of times as you know, due to hypovolemic shock, but we were able to get him back. The other injury didn’t give us any problems. Right now we are trying to keep his blood pressure up, and are worried about his kidneys. It appears that he is in acute prerenal kidney failure.” The doctor took a breath. “We are also concerned about his brain, with the amount of blood that he lost, and the fact that we lost him a few times, well it’s a game of wait and see. I’m sorry I wish I had better news.” She sighed and stretched. “I need to go update Director Webber on her agent’s condition.” She stood up. “I have every reason to hope that Mac will be ok, so don’t give up on him. A nurse will be down here in a few minutes to take you to his room. Director Webber directed us to make sure that you had access to Agent MacGyver at all times.” With that she left the room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A couple of hours later saw the three of them situated in Mac’s ICU room. He was in a large room with glass doors and large windows so that the nurses could keep an eye on him at all times. When Mac had been in rooms like that before he called them patient fishbowls, but now he was just lying there. Jack sighed, “how about ya’ll got get us something to eat? My appetite is coming back, and I don’t want to pass out from manly hunger.” Bozer rolled his eyes, but trotted over to grab the money Jack was holding out. “Hey Riles, go with Bozer to make sure he don’t spend all my money on something gross like, Funyons.” Her expression didn’t change, but she trailed after Bozer leaving just him and Mac.

Scooting one of the two visitor’s chairs over to Mac’s bed Jack plopped down in it, and grabbed a hold of Mac’s slack hand. “Listen up Bud. You are starting to worry the others. I’ve done this song and dance with you before, but they haven’t, so anytime you want to wake up is fine with me.” Jack paused the raw emotion making his voice crack. “I’ll be honest Angus, I thought” Jack stopped to bite back the tears. “You were dead, and that shook me more than I want to admit, so you need to wake up and show these doctors that you and your big brain are going to be fine.” Jack swiped at the renegade tears that escaped. “Even if your kidneys are messed up, we’ll deal with that too.”

Jack stopped then to really look his friend over. Mac was starting to get some color back, he wasn’t as chalky white as he had been, and he had lost that blue tint, but he was still very pale. Looking down at where he was holding Mac’s hand, Jack noticed that it was a bit swollen, like his great-Aunt Bessie used to get when she’d forget her pills. He made a mental note to tell the nurse when the next one came in. Mac was only on a nasal cannula, he still had the heart monitor, which showed that his pulse was still higher than normal and blood pressure was lower than normal, an IV running two lines, one for blood and another for whatever meds they were giving him, and he was tethered ‘down there’ as Jack liked to say. Seeing that Mac’s hair had fallen onto his face again, Jack reached up to brush it aside, and realized that Mac felt like he might be running a temp.

Jack was about to summon a nurse when one walked in, “How’s he doing Agent Dalton?”

Jack frowned at the formal title, “It’s Jack.”

The nurse smiled, “Then call me Tommy I prefer it to Nurse Thomas.”

Jack smiled wanly. “I think he’s runnin’ a fever and his hands seem swollen to me.”

Tommy nodded and grabbed a thermometer running it across Mac’s forehead. “100.6, not great.” He scanned into the laptop sitting beside Mac’s bed, typed in his vitals, looked at Mac’s arms and feet, and tapped on the keyboard some more.

“Well?” Jack asked impatiently.

Tommy sighed turning to look at Jack, “Well it could be several things, with him going into septic shock from the hypovolemia, some of the symptoms of that are fever, rapid heart rate, and low blood pressure. However, those are also symptoms of infection, or the swelling could have to do with his kidneys. I’m going to grab some blood, and see what it tells me, but I’m thinking we need to up his antibiotics, and possibly start him on some diuretics since his urine output isn’t what I would like it to be. I’ll be right back to draw that blood

Then it was a waiting game, Bozer and Riley came back with snacks, Tommy did the blood draw, and they waited, and waited, which, by now, had become routine. Finally Tommy came back with some answers.

“We are going to start him on some diuretics which should help with the swelling and the urine output problems. There are signs of an infection, so we are going to go ahead and get a PICC line set up and administer some heavy-duty antibiotics.” Tommy leveled with them. “It’s going to take a while to get the PICC line inserted, and we need to keep a sterile field. So now is the time to go take a break.”

Jack could feel Riley and Bozer’s eyes on him. “I think I’ll take a little walk, and stay the night here.” He got nods of agreement from the other two.

“In the morning Riley and I will switch, so you can go get some actual rest.” Bozer stated. “And don’t argue with me or I’ll call Matty.”

Jack was about to argue with him, but quickly realized that Bozer wasn’t joking around. So he nodded his consent, and gave the kids hugs as they left.

Later, as Jack was stretched out in the recliner that they brought in for him, he prayed for Mac in a way that he hadn’t for a long time. A peace came over him, and he was able to finally close his eyes and rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See no real cliffhanger this time! Let me know what you thought, because reviews are a balm to this writer's soul!


	4. Mac

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it y'all, last chapter! Thank you ever so much for all the kind words and kudos they mean more than you will ever know, and it often encourages me to write more stories. I love hearing from you about what you did/didn't enjoy. I hope you have enjoyed this little tale as much as I have. Just like last time, if you see any glaring medical omissions please let me know! Huge thanks to Axxonly for the beta, and as always I don't own MacGyver. Without further ado, here's Mac's POV

Mac’s first brush with consciousness was brief. Hearing came back first, he could hear familiar voices, the beep of a cardiac monitor, and the usual hospital noises. ‘ _Guess I’m in a hospital’_ he thought before drifting off.

The next time he was able to open his eyes. It was dark in the room, so Mac figured that it was night. He felt so tired, and his whole body hurt. He could feel a warm pressure on his hand. Moving only his eyes, he saw a lot of hair, so it must be Riley. His eyes slid shut before he could explore any more.

Third time was the charm. He could hear Jack’s voice droning on about something. Then he stopped, “Hey Mac, you waking up?” Mac tried to open his eyes. “Come on, open those baby blues for me.” Mac finally succeeded in opening his eyes. “There you are slugger!” Jack crowed. He turned his head addressing somebody behind him, “I told you he would wake up today.” Jack sounded like a proud papa. “Take it easy Bud, you’ve been pretty sick.”

Mac didn’t need Jack to tell him that. All he had done was open his eyes and he felt utterly exhausted. He could feel sleep pulling at him again, but he wanted to know what was going on. Frowning he tried to ask what happened, but all that came out was a breathy moan. Jack was there with the usual hospital water container. “Here, take a drink.” He lowered it to Mac’s mouth and just the act of swallowing put him back asleep.

When he woke up next he could tell more time had passed, and now Bozer was sitting beside him talking to someone out of Mac’s eyesight. “So, picture this, I’m standing on the roof with just my tighty whiteys on and Mac’s on the ground trying to tell me….” Bozer trailed off, moving to where Mac could see him better. “You waking up again?” Jack told me that you woke up before, but you were asleep before I got back in here.”

Riley moved up to the other side of the bed, with an unreadable look on her face. “Hey Mac, glad to see you awake. I was beginning to think that Jack was pulling our legs about you being awake before.” She stopped, just standing there awkwardly.

Bozer took over, “Jack is going to be really pissed that you woke up again without him here.”

“Sorry.” Mac breathed out.

Both Riley and Bozer started grinning. “How are you feeling?” Riley asked tentatively.

Mac took a deep breath, “Hit…by… a truck.” Then he slipped back asleep.

The next time he awoke it was to a nurse checking his vitals. When he realized that Mac’s eyes were open the nurse talked to him. “I heard that you had woken up a couple of times today. It’s about twenty three hundred, and your friends Riley and Jack are sleeping here with you. Would you like a drink?”

“Please.” Mac said quietly. He felt a little more with it this time.

The nurse signed off of his charting, and held the water cup up for Mac. “Easy, just a few small sips.” Mac obeyed, and it felt wonderful going down his throat. “Get some more sleep, and we’ll get you some answers in the morning ok?” Mac nodded, and was soon drifting back to sleep, this time because he wanted to.

Mac awoke in the morning to the sound of a tray clattering and Jack talking loudly, “Oh is this for me? You shouldn’t have.”

“No, this is for Agent MacGyver, if you want your own food then trot down to the mess and get it.” Came an unknown female voice, then the sound of Riley giggling.

“She sure has your number.” Riley said still laughing.

“Laugh it up. Once Mac wakes up, I’m sure he’ll share.” Jack said.

“I’m not sharing.” Mac said, his voice sounding much stronger than it had earlier.

“Well hey there Sleeping Beauty. It’s nice to see those eyes open for once.” Jack said with a grin as he came to stand by Mac’s bed.

Riley came up next to him, “Glad to see you’re awake.”

“Are you awake, awake Hombre?” Jack asked. “Cause you’ve been awake.” Jack used air quotes around awake. “Before.”

That brought a small chuckle out of Mac. “I think I’m fully _awake_.” He blinked for a few minutes. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a tractor trailer though.”

“Yeah, massive blood loss will do that to a person. You feel like sitting up?” Jack was using the controls to sit Mac up even before he had a chance to answer.

“Massive blood loss?” Mac knew he felt weak, tired, and his neck and side hurt like he’d been shot, again. But he didn’t remember how he had actually gotten to the hospital.

Riley took a seat at the end of Mac’s bed. “What do you remember?”

Mac frowned trying to think back, but the drugs in his system were making his head fuzzy, plus he was pretty sure his stomach was trying to eat itself. So he just shook his head, at least he tried to, turned out that moving his neck was a really bad idea. When he was able to breathe normally again Jack was staring at him all concerned like.

“Alright Hoss, let’s get some food in ya. Let you have another nap, and after the nurse pokes at you, we can play story time.” While it sounded like a suggestion Mac knew it was anything but.

“Ok.” Jack rolled the food tray over and uncovered the plate. It was a standard breakfast tray with scrambled eggs, toast, some sort of fruit, a couple pieces of burnt bacon, and a yogurt. Jack reached for the yogurt putting the spoon in it before handing it to Mac.

“You need help with it?” Jack asked kindly. 

Mac shot him his best glare. “I think I can manage.”

Jack shot him a look right back. “You forget that I know what it’s like to be in that hospital bed. There is no shame in asking for help. Plus, you look like an angry hedgehog, which is adorable.”

But Mac’s stubbornness prevailed. He took the yogurt from Jack, and although his hands trembled he was able to feed himself. After half the yogurt was gone Mac’s eyes began to droop, and the spoon started to dangle, the simple task of eating wore him out. Jack gently took the cup and spoon out of his hand and dimmed the lights, while Riley let the bed down a little bit so Mac could rest easier.

Mac awoke when the lunch tray came rattling in. Bozer, Riley and Jack were all gathered back in his room. Bozer grabbed the tray, while Jack set the bed up. Mac surveyed the tray, and decided that starting with the Jello seemed like a good idea. His shaking wasn’t so bad, and he felt like he had a tiny bit more energy. After his first bite he looked at his friends, “So you promised to tell me what happened.” Riley perched on the foot of his bed, while Jack sat in a recliner situated next to it, and Bozer stood up against the wall. Seconds passed and when all three just kept on looking at each other, Mac asked exasperated, “Will someone tell me what happened?”

“Ok Roomie…” Bozer started;

But Jack talked over him, “So while on the mission you took two rounds. One to the side, the other as you know in the neck.” Jack paused his voice getting shaky.

Riley took over, “There was so much blood. I thought…”

“I thought you were dead, Angus.” Jack breathed out, closing his eyes. Then he shook it off. “Thanks to our girl Riley here, we were able to stop some of the bleeding, and got you here.” Jack paused again. Riley and Bozer remained quiet. “Your heart stopped because you didn’t have enough blood circulating in that big brain of yours; turns out that the carotid artery was nicked by the bullet, then your kidneys decided to rebel because they didn’t like being without blood either. The doctors thought that you might.…” Jack trailed off his voice overcome by emotion.

“They thought you might have brain damage, but they don’t know you, now do they?” Bozer said trying to lift the mood.

Riley picked up the conversation thread, “After all that you got an infection in the wound on your side. Your temp got pretty high. Scared us even more. You’ve been out for a couple of days. They weren’t sure if it was due to the concussion, blood loss, infection or what.”

Jack picked the conversation back up, “But you showed them who’s the boss, and are on the right track.”

Once they had started talking Mac had lost all interest in his food, he couldn’t believe that he had been through all that, and couldn’t remember any of it. “Thanks for taking care of me guys.” His touching comment was marred by a loud yawn.

Jack grinned at him, his eyes bright, “You take another nap, I’ll keep Bozer from eating all the good stuff on here.”

Mac did his best to nod, but his eyes were already half closed.

“Agent MacGyver?” the sound was accompanied with a slight shaking. Mac woke up to find a woman in a doctor’s coat at the foot of his bed, and a nurse standing beside him already logging his vitals. The only other person in the room was Jack who was sitting in a recliner by his bed. “How are you feeling today?”

“Better.” When he didn’t elaborate he heard Jack stifle a laugh. But the doctor didn’t look amused.

“Just better?” The doctor asked archly.

Mac thought for a second, well she didn’t have a base line of how he felt before, so therefore better was the answer he was going with. “Yes.”

She looked miffed. “Has anybody gone over what you have been through?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He motioned at Jack, “They filled me in.”

“As you know everything that happened to you was serious on its own, but altogether you are still in a very serious condition.”

“I do.”

The doctor sighed and shook her head in agitation, “I’ll come visit later, get some rest Agent MacGyver.” She threw over her shoulder as she left.

The nurse standing beside him shook his head. “She doesn’t have the best bedside manner, but she really is a great doctor. I don’t know if you remember my name, but I’m Nurse Tommy. So, on a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain right now?”

Mac gave it some thought, “Probably a five or so.” He turned to Jack, “And before you say anything it’s a general kind of hurting, and I can still feel the last round of pain meds.” Jack nodded at Mac’s answer.

Tommy nodded and made a note, “So since you’re staying awake for longer periods of time, we’ll start getting you ready for discharge.” Tommy must have seen Mac’s eyes light up. “Not to go home, but transferred back to your agency’s medical facility. What we want to see before then is for you to be able to go to the bathroom on your own, for you to be downgraded to a peripheral IV, and to make sure that your kidney function is back to normal. So I think we are probably looking at a couple more days. Do you have any questions?”

Jack raised his hand. Mac gave him a look that he hoped conveyed, ‘really Jack’.

“He gets tired at the drop of a hat. Is there anything we can do?”

Smiling Tommy nodded “Ok, so lethargy is quite common after losing a large amount of blood. The best thing to help regain your energy levels is to eat iron rich foods, and take iron supplements. Patients have told me that it's what helped them the most.”

Mac nodded, “that makes sense. You see the iron in people’s blood…”

Jack interrupted him, “I don’t need a lecture, Professor, I just need to know what to do.” Jack shrugged, “or what to tell Bozer to do.”

Tommy laughed, “If there is anything else you gentlemen need just hit the red button, I’ll be back in about…” He looked at his watch. “An hour, to remove the catheter and get you up and walking. So you might want to get a nap in, before all the fun begins.”

Mac nodded, closing his already drooping eyes, this lethargy crap sucked, he thought, as he drifted off to sleep.

_One week later_

Mac was sitting out by the fire pit wrapped in a blanket. Ever since he left the hospital he had such a hard time staying warm. Jack liked to joke it was because he had no padding to insulate him. To which Mac always tried to explain that it didn’t work like that before Jack would stick his fingers in his ears and start humming. He had finally been released from Phoenix medical several hours ago, and had been instructed to take it easy while Jack and Bozer fixed some food. Riley came out and sat beside him, handing him a drink that looked like chocolate milk.

He took it with a puzzled look on his face. “What is this?”

Riley grinned, “So on the plane ride home while you were napping, Jack and Bozer were googling ’how to get iron levels up’, and Jack read that Milo had helped some people. So Jack called Sam and she shipped some right over. She sends her love and wishes you a speedy recovery.”

“Thanks.” Mac tepidly took a drink. It wasn’t too bad, malty and chocolaty, but not something he could see himself drinking a lot of.

After another sip he set the glass down. “So what are the culinary geniuses cooking up in there?”

“I think Jack’s working on some sort of chili, and I think Bozer’s working on hummus or something with chickpeas.” Riley answered.

Mac simply cocked his eyebrow.

“Jack has a list of iron rich foods. I think they’re seeing how many they can make in one go.” Riley chuckled and added, “In cast iron cookware.”

“They keep going like this, and my iron will be through the roof!” Mac commented taking another sip of the Milo.

“Listen Mac, I feel so guilty, my head wasn’t where it should have been for that mission. We were exposed....”

Mac cut her off. “I still don’t remember much about what happened.” He touched his head where the fading bruise could be seen. “But what I do know is that even if Jack was in there with us, it still might have happened just like it did, or even worse ok?” He looked at her with sincerity. “Jack told me that if it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t be alive. So I should be thanking you for saving my life.”

Riley looked down and huskily said, “You’re welcome Mac. Just never do that again!”

“You better listen to her Blondie!” Matty’s voice was the only thing that announced her presence. “We don’t need any more close calls for any of our agents.”

“Food’s ready! Come and get it!” Bozer hollered up the steps. Mac started to stand up, his wound on his side pulling at the stitches. “But not you Mac! Jack’s bringing your plate.”

Once everybody had eaten their fill of Jack’s ‘iron clad chili’ that had even been cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven that had been sent all the way from Texas by a very worried Mama Dalton. Matty stood up to make a toast. “Here’s to making it back alive, and beating the odds once again!”

Everybody but Mac raised their beers, and Mac raised his glass of Milo. “Cheers!”

“And I’m going to be looking into getting some sort of body cams! I’m tired of having to ask for sit-reps in the middle of a dangerous situation.” Matty said after taking her drink.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea Matty?” Jack asked. “Won’t that show _everything_ that you do? Like eat pizza, use the bathroom, and Mac’s wouldn’t even last a full mission before he started taking it apart to use for parts!” Jack lit up. “On second thought go ahead and get them, then maybe my phone would be safe for once!”

“Naw man,” Riley drawled. “Mac would still need to use your phone.” She grinned and winked at Mac.

The debate raged on, but Mac set back content to watch them bicker relishing the warmth that was seeping into his bones. It was good to be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Found some problems? Let me know!  
>  And as my tradition of shameless pimping my next story, it will be the third in my Teacher AU (but is it really AU not that Mac is a professor? LOL), where Jack sees Mac's house for the first time (I swear I will get them in a classroom sometime in the near future, just gotta get them through college next)

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! I want to hear it!


End file.
